Shabbes Is Punk

“More than the Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews,” turn-of-the-twentieth century cultural Zionist Ahad Ha’am famously maintained.

Shabbat observance [no turning on lights or other electrical devices, no making/starting a fire, no riding/driving or using wheeled vehicles, nothing that counts as “work” can be construed as transgressive in its circumscription of modern technology, whatever “modern technology” entailed in whatever century the Jews happened to find themselves. Keeping Shabbat can be onerous, yes; but perhaps therein lies its power, and its means of keeping us. Because it can be beneficial to eschew technological norms once a week, difficult as it may seem.

Perhaps the most obvious of Shabbat’s benefits is the digital detox. Putting aside our phones allows us to focus on who or what is in front of us, instead of whoever or whatever is pinging us from afar. It allows us to wonder—Who wrote that song? What was that movie called?—instead of instantly googling every trivial query. It allows us to pine for things and think about if we actually need them instead of ordering whatever will instantly satisfy every passing whim. Yet unplugging may feel impossible—without the imperative of a vengeful deity or the mores of your tribe. And that tribe is vital. First, because if your friends put their phones down for Shabbat too, you’re not missing out on any of their funny texts or plans they’re making. But more importantly because observing Shabbat is not something you can do alone.

The centerpiece of Shabbat is sharing meals with others. Three meals are mandated, so much of Shabbat is spent around a table with other people: breaking bread together, sitting together, drinking together, debating together, studying together, singing together. All the work has been done, and there is no place else to be.

And because it is a communal affair, Shabbat can foster kids’ independence. If kids don’t have their phones, their parents can’t track them. They can be freerange, granted the independence, unstructured time, and in-person connections with neighborhood friends that they are so often denied during the week.

What’s punk about all that? If the punk ethos is characterized by rejecting mainstream values, then pretty much everything. Shabbat is a collective refusal to settle for business as usual, a weekly acknowledgement that we can—nay, we must—take a break from this world and spend our day imagining a better one.